A Round-Table Discussion will be hosted by the yacht service and refit specialist company Palmawatch at the inaugural Quaynote Palma 2015 Refit & Repair Conference, dedicated to the refit and repair of superyachts. This will be held in the popular Mediterranean yacht holiday location – Palma in Spain on Thursday, April 30, alongside the 3rd Palma Yacht Show, as well as the 32nd Boatshow Palma.
Refit of a luxury sailing yacht
The Palma show is the perfect venue for the Quaynote Palma 2015 Refit & Repair Conference, thanks to up to 70 yachts from 24 to 65 metres on display during the event. Today, the Show represents one of the world’s premier events for serious buyers, charterers and industry professionals to gather at the very start of the Mediterranean season.
It has been a very busy period for Palmawatch during the winter. The company performed major haul-out repair works, complete repaints, rig and sail maintenance, onboard system overhauls and total refits on a whole range of yachts. These included Oyster yachts based in Palma, where Palmawatch is the preferred service partner for the well-known UK yacht manufacturer.
A Round-Table session entitled: The Captain’s role in a refit project, and does the refit industry have enough shore staff with proven sea-going experience? will be moderated by Sylvain Brault, the Operations Director at Palmawatch. He has been not only sailing for his whole life, being a captain on plenty of bluewater cruising yachts up to 30m, but he has also worked on hands-on project management of refit projects in a number of shipyards, and new build supervision including the 30m (100′) Nautor’s Swan sailing yacht Julie Marie, where he was at the Nautor’s yard in Finland representing the owner.
One of main suppliers of Palmawatch will also speak at the conference on the subject of Interior Design for Superyacht Refits. Tom Pickles, Superyacht Sales Manager for UK-based Oceanair, specializing in customised window blinds and soft furnishings, will join the expert panel for the session moderated by Joost Mertons, senior designer from the prestigious Dutch naval architects, Vripack.
Pierre Oberon, Palmawatch Managing Director said: “We are very happy to play our part in making this conference a success, and to join with some of our regular quality component suppliers such as Oceanair, and many other industry colleagues at such an event. Palma de Mallorca has become one of the largest and best equipped refit and repair centres in the world with first class facilities and an excellent infrastructure, so its important that we encourage and support more professional forums like this.”
